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Luna City One
Luna City One, informally 'Luna-1'The differing names were explained in the introduction Judge Dredd and Worlds of 2000AD RPG book Luna-1 as "Luna City One" being the formal title, is an American-founded human settlement on the surface of Earth's moon. It is the first and largest of the lunar cities. Neighbours include Puerto Lumina and the Sino Block's city Zhang Heng. Description Luna-1 is an extraterritorial city on the Moon. The city is protected by oxy-domes constructed of self-repairing cellu-foam, with oxygen originally supplied by the government-run Oxygen Board. Beyond that lay the unforgiving wastes of the ironically named Oxygen Desert. It has a little-mentioned municipal council. The city borders the Eagle lander from the Apollo 11, which remains as a landmark. History The International Astronautics and Space Administration offered a ten million credit prize to anyone who could find life on the moon. In 2014, entrepreneur Clinton Wendell Moonie claimed the prize when he discovered a microbe - which infected him with Selenite Hydrocephalus Syndrome ("Moonie's Disease"). A number of explorers died and Moonie was hideously deformed before a cure was found. The bitter Moonie decided he was now "owed" the moon."Meet Mister Moonie", with extra detail by the book "Eclipse" Moonie worked to gain control of America's lunar territories. The International Lunar Treaty of 2061 would grant a million square miles of the moon's surface to North America.Luna-1 After the Atomic Wars, the lunar colonies agreed to the Judge system and were rapidly crushed of resistance. The Oxygen Board and oxy-corps were then given great powers to collect revenue''War Planet'' audio and could 'cut you off' by removing oxygen from your home if you didn't pay. On Luna One, a saying developed: "A smart man can beat the law - but, baby, only a fool bucks the Oxygen Board."The Oxygen Board In 2075, the Luna-Territories were seeing a period of growth and seen as a desirable place to move by Texas City's Judge Hess.Megazine 356: "Angelic Part 1" In 2088, the city of Luna-1 was formally established by Mega-City One, Mega-City Two, and Texas City. This was partly diplomatic exercise, designed to renew and cement relations with Texas City. Government of the colony is divided initially between all three cities and overseen by the Triumverate, with a senior Judge being sent every six months to take over as Judge-Marshal. 2000 AD Annual 1984 text feature While this was American established, the moon in general was still considered international territory and other foreign Judges were sent on international tours of its colonies Wetworks and even Luna-1 had Mex-Cit Judges. Che and Chico in various 'Luna-1' strips, formally confirmed as Mex-Cit in the Eclipse book In 2099, Luna-1 was still an expanding frontier with new plots of land being opened to claimants; it strongly resembled the Wild West in many respects. Moonie's control was near-absolute (only the government-run Oxygen Board was as powerful as him), the Judges were failing to keep order, and Judge-Marshal's had a habit of dying on the job. Judge Dredd was appointed Judge-Marshal shortly before Christmas. After several assassination attempts, he stormed Moonie's home and brought him to justice.Luna-1 through Meet Mister Moonie With the help of Judge Tex, Judge Chico and Judge Ché, he continued to clean up the city. In 2100, the city held the Olympics in Crater Stadium. A Sov athlete was assassinated and the Sov Judge delegate declared war - a formal 'war game' of two opposing teams for territory. Thanks to Dredd, the Luna team won and was awarded some Sov territory in compensation.The First Lunar Olympics and War Games In the spring, 53,000 people were killed and half a million died when a raider gang pumped tranquiliser into the Oxy-Stations and knocked out most of the city. The Judges considered it unlikely they could find the robbers responsible for the atrocity. However, the robbers had forgotten to pay their oxygen bill and were 'cut off' - after losing their keys. Judge Dredd discovered the gang’s corpses, surrounded by loot, three days later.The Oxygen Board When Dredd finished his six-month term, he appointed Tex as permanent Judge-Marshal. By the 2110s, Luna-1 had stopped becoming an American colony and was becoming an international zone; it was now a modern, cosmopolitan city-state. As with other colonies, foreign Judges were seconded there, including from East-Meg Two and Simba City. An extremely powerful Special Judicial Squad was established.Darkside Due to Judgement Day, the supply of North American Judges had sharply dropped. Breathing Space In 2118, Dredd return to Luna-1 to pursue antiques racketeer Jizz Rydel for stealing from the Black Museum. Alongside Casablanca Psi-Judge Hassid, he began an investigation but was arrested for a series of brutal murders. The SJS, run by the sadistic Judge Kessler, tortured him for a confession. Instead it turned out the killer was Dredd's zombie self from the "City of the Damned" future, out on a rampage to try and find a way back home. Dredd stopped it but not before it killed many people, among them Hassid.Darkside Around 2118 or 2119The novel Eclipse is set around 2126 and refers to the treaty as seven years old, Luna-1 had arranged the Global Lunar Partnership Treaty. The Triumverate oversight body expanded to over a dozen megacities, all agreed to protect Luna-1's integrity and neutrality, and to despatch reinforcements if the city was in danger. In reality, they tried to use it to have influence over the city and each maintained 'diplomatic courier ships' with armed troops; if the city ever lost control, the Treaty allowed them to restore it by force, which meant taking it over before the others did. Treaty members included East-Meg Two, the Sino Block, Hondo, Brit-Cit (including Cal-Hab), Oz, the Pan-Andes Conurb, Casablanca, Vatican City, Indo-City, Mex-Cit, Midgard, and Simba City.Eclipse, following on from work by Darkside When the Meatmonger aliens began abducting humans, Luna-1 satellites tried to find the cause of the disappearances.Meatmonger Aging film star Conrad Conn spent his last penniless days on Luna-1.Whatever Happened to Conrad Conn? Another actor was Sir Tam "Big Jock" Tamson McJock, who moved there in 2074 and refused to return to Cal-Hab until all trace of Brit-Cit rule (and the 22 million in tax he owed) were erased.Tartan Terrors In the 2120s, investment was down and the colony was in slow decline for years. The Judges sent to the moon were often ones Earth didn't want. Lack of Triumverate funding meant the Luna Justice Department's arsenal and systems, which had been state-of-the-art in the 2110s, were decaying. Eclipse An elderly Moonie had escaped jail and was working with East-Meg Two to try and destabilise the colony, so the Treaty would be nullified and the Sovs could send troops to 'restore order' under the Treaty; the criminal would rule the moon and grant the Sovs mineral rights. Moonie had backdoor controls into many Luna-1 systems and was able to use oxygen withdrawals and subliminal signals to start brutal riots in 2126. Judge-Marshal Tex requested a global team of assisting Judges led by Dredd but was himself assassinated; when Deputy Marshal Ché was unable to handle the crisis, Kessler pushed him into increasing the violent response (killing even more people than the riots had) and planned to seize control. Dredd's team, with the help of defecting Sov Judge Kontarsky, uncovered the plot but the foreign powers were unwilling to step in against East-Meg Two. Undaunted, Dredd assumed Judge-Marshal status from Ché and led a strike-team that defeated Moonie and the Sov force. Before giving up his role, he nullified the Partnership Treaty so only Mega-City One and Texas City remained on the Triumverate, reinstated the six-month Marshal program, privatised and broke up the Oxygen Board so it couldn't be coopted again, and made Konstarsky the new Marshal. Kessler warned him that Luna-1 would not be able to handle the sudden independence.Eclipse Kessler was correct: by 2127, the city was becoming further run down, crime was up, corruption had grown in the local Judge force and Marshals were targets once more, and unemployment had gone up under the private oxygen companies. Judge King of Mega-City One became the new Marshal. The psychic Caeron Rinken, daughter of an oxygen mogul, used her powers to make King murder all of her father's competitors during 'full Earths' (the "Earth murderer"). When this was exposed Breathing Space the oxygen companies were left in disarray and MC-1's Enormo Overdrive was able to buy them all out (and fired 99.99% of the human staff).Low Life: Saudade As one of Judge Bachmann's allies, Overdrive began constructing the "Luna-2" godcity in secret on the other side of the moon.Saudade Judges Initially, the Judges were from American megacities and dressed as such. By the 2110s, foreign Judges also remained. The moon-born Judges began to have their own uniforms by the 2120s: black with dark blue kneepads and chest armour. Almost all foreign Judges were recalled in 2126, leaving the Luna-1 force reliant on Mega-City One and Texas City to boost its manpower - which Texas City did not.Breathing Space established that only MC-1 still sent people Due to the low gravity, Luna Judges pilot low-hover Zipper Bikes. While firearms were used by Judges, the threat of dome punctures meant they were replaced with electrical STUP-Guns and STUP-Cannons (Scalar-Tesla Uniform Pulse) by the 2110s. The most advanced Zipper in 2118 was the Krait 3000 but budget cuts meant the Judges were mostly using older models in 2126. In 2127, wheeled bikes were being used. Luna-1's Special Judicial Service have greater powers than Mega-City One's and can carry out brutal torture; bladed instruments are allowed. The SJS building is an over-the-top gothic structure marked with skulls.Darkside Trivia Luna-1 said that Luna-1 was divided up by the three American mega-cities in 2061, while later strips establish they were still part of the United States until 2070. The "Second Civil War" first mentioned in 2000 AD Annual 1984 had the city and its Judge-Marshall rotation started in 2088. * In his script for "The Killing Zone", Dave Stone left a note for Big Finish that Puerto Luminae was to Luna-1 "the same way that Puerto Rico exists to the mainland USA".http://www.pseudopod.empty-spaces.net/page2/KillingZone.pdf James Swallow's book "Eclipse" had it as a barrio sector of Luna-1, inhabited by citizens from Pan Andes. References Category:City Category:Locations Category:Judge Dredd Comics